Shire keen to leave fraud case behind

Mon 9 Sep 2013, 1:49 PM AEST

The Shire of Murchison says it is pleased that a former CEO, who stole thousands of dollars from the shire, has been jailed.

A Corruption and Crime Commission investigation found between 2008 and 2010 Ronald John Adams used his shire credit card and fuel card to pay for airfares, veterinary bills, clothing and traffic fines.

The 42 year old also used shire funds to make payments to benefit members of his family.

Adams pleaded guilty to 139 corruption and stealing charges and has been jailed for 16 months and ordered to repay more than $40,000 to the Murchison Shire.

Shire president Simon Broad says the results have been a long time coming.

"This has just been a little glitch in our past, in our history, and from now on it's forwards and upwards," he said.

"The group of people that we've got running the administration at [the] office are a fantastic group of ladies, three ladies that are all terrific and it's only forwards and upwards from here on.

"It's a great relief I guess because it's put an end to a pretty dark period in our past, so now we can look forward to the future and we've got a really good group together at the admin level so we're really excited about the future rather than dwelling on the past."